Experimental demonstration of quantum contextuality on an NMR qutrit

TL;DR

This paper experimentally demonstrates quantum contextuality in a single qutrit using NMR, reformulating inequalities for measurement and showing violations across multiple states, including a single-shot test for diagonal states.

Contribution

It provides the first reformulation of contextuality inequalities suitable for NMR and experimentally verifies quantum contextuality in a single qutrit system.

Findings

Violations of contextuality inequalities observed in four initial states.

Single-shot contextuality test successfully performed on diagonal states.

Contextuality persists as states evolve over time.

Abstract

We experimentally test quantum contextuality of a single qutrit using NMR. The contextuality inequalities based on nine observables developed by Kurzynski et. al. are first reformulated in terms of traceless observables which can be measured in an NMR experiment. These inequalities reveal the contextuality of almost all single-qutrit states. We demonstrate the violation of the inequality on four different initial states of a spin-1 deuterium nucleus oriented in a liquid crystal matrix, and follow the violation as the states evolve in time. We also describe and experimentally perform a single-shot test of contextuality for a subclass of qutrit states whose density matrix is diagonal in the energy basis.